Sign-letter.



R. R. WILEY.

SIGN LETTER.

APPLIUATION FILED JAN. 26, 1906.

PATENTED PER-11, 190s.

" ments' in Sign lsetters; of which the L li'gible by da shine with great htilhancy and" aor'nonnar WI EY, or s'r. CATHERINES, DNTARIO, CANADA.

I ,5 srsn-mrrrna.

Specification er Letters latent. I

' Patented Feb.11,1908.

' Application 516i lawyer. 1906. Serial 110., 298.077..

To all Madmen-rips Be it known, that I, .RonRonnnr WILEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at- .of Lincoln,-

City of St. .Catherines, count Province of'Ontario',Canada, e eetrical engineer,have invented new and useful Im roveollowin is a-specification.

. y present in ention relates to sign letters;

ofthe type the rear.

, "whileby ht eve the letter wil mg W be visible from widely varying points.

'Another object isto provide a letter of;

- such form that when a series of them are as sembled xin a'suitable case, frame or holder,

one or morenia be readily removedand reeplaced without isturbing the others;

A still further object is to provide sign letters which may be easily and economical manufactured fiend assembled, and which wiil be extremely durable in use, and which will \be? extremely economicalin operation v owing toj the, hi h percentageof light which will be utilized or the illumination of the letters.

eflg'eneral naturepf the invention comshaped to concentrate l' ht rays at the rear, ya to t frontofithe' letter and there, to emit them" as letter forming i Pany n divergent raysfthe" front of the letter being in its specifie forin aplane surface, and the rearprlsmaticfand largerin area, than the front.

1 The inven idn is'illustrated in the accorndrawing in which: Figure 1 is a front view. I Fig. 2 is aback viewgand Fig. 3 is a view of Fig'l'lookingupward from a lane below the sign letter shown'in that re.

' Fi 4 is a sectional'view of a modification.

- glass plate and 6 D According to iny inventionl mold or otherwise form the las's'in such a manner that the desired letter 11s. rovided in relief upon the front-of a glass p ate while a prismatic back is also provided conforming in shape tothe raised portion upon the front. A In the drawing the numeral 5 designates a a raised flange or re ief pore tion of a confi ation crres onglinglto the havefound that. e best the cross sectional shape shown in Fig.3 in

designed tobe illuminated by a" etterrplates" oftranslucent material,

which it will be seen'to have inclined sides 6 and a central connecting flat portion b. The prismatic back is shown at 7 and consists of a rib or flange of glass having two plain faces 7 joining in-the center of the latter. The front and rear flanges and the plate may all be. con.- veniently for-med of a single piece of glass .I pressed or molded into the desircdshape and this is preferable. The side edges of the plates may conveniently be provided with reversely rabbeted portions 5 and when a number of plates are assembled each will overlap the other. B this construction tits plates will assist in hold p ce and yet each plate ma be easily removed when it is desired to en stitute a 1 late bear-in some other letter. There will be no cracks etween the plate through which light can pass as the entire surface of the lates except that occupied by the prisms or light. 1

- Instead of making the letter of a single piece of glass '1 ma shown in Fig. 4.

plate 5 is formed by pressin or molding the glass so as to provide a ho low flange or throughout. The prismatic back'is molded from a separate piece of glass having its front degrees of inclination; The edges of the rear plate can be riveted or'otherwise I the, front plate and the rabbeted portions may be formed by having the edges alternately overlap as shown.

the rear, the nd reflection with when described, is illuminated fro prismatic back by refraction makes the front raised portion shine great brilliancy and exceedinglegibility viewed from" widely varying points.

a prismatic back, such as shown and deline perpendicular to the general plane of the plate, as indicated at a nd, 1), are refracted by the rear and front grisms so as to leave the front surface on'linfes sharply inclined tlilereto such rays, however, as strike the rear prismatic surfaces Lperpen: dic'ularly to said surface (and. incline to the general plane of the plate)'as indicated at c, are reflected and refracted so as to leave'the front surface. as indicated by the dotted line a, By regon of the refraction above deanges form it in the manner n this the flange on the rib 6 with its walls of equal, thickness With 5 so that ing each other in are covered with a coating impervious to and rear HIGllIlGd faces at jdifierentangles or a secured to 'When a'sign letter, constructed as above the letter, or a scribed the illuminating light can beplaced at other points than immediately in rear of single light may be used in a suitable case or box to illuminate a long row or series of letters without detracting from the brilliancy of the effect. Another important function of the prismatic back is that it so breaks up or distributes the rays that the eye will not readily observe the source of light, and still another function is that it causes the front chainfered or prismatic edges to shine with great brilliancy.

For small letters the front shown in the first three figures is preferable but for large letters-that shown in Fig. 4 is desirable as economizing material and reducing in weight.

In order to make the letter or letters legible by day it is desirable to coat the opaque part of the letter lates with bronze or similar finish which wi 1 cause the letters to stand out from the background with great distinctness and contrast when the source of light is in front, as in the day time; It will be obvious that there may be many modifications of the salient features of the invention as shown in the drawings an scribed in the specification'without depart ing from the spirit of the invention and consequently the invention is not to be regarded as limited to the literal description thereof 1 than the .cident rays which are perpendicular to the except as required by the scope of the ap pended claims.

1. A sign character comprising translucent material having a front plane surface to form the configuration of a letter, and having a prismatic back surface of larger area front surface for concentrating infront plane surface upon said surface.

2. A sign character comprising translucent material whose back portion is in relief, and shaped for concentrating light rays and whose front portion is in relief and shaped for diverging said concentrated rays.

3. A sign character comprising translucent material, shaped for concentrating light rays incident thereon, into the shape of a letter, and .for emitting said concentrated rays in the shape of the same letter in diverging lines.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ROY Bonner WILEY. Witnesses: I I

A. W. MAGUIRE, W. STUART LANE. 

